Recently, the number of vehicles equipped with in-vehicle cameras for photographing the situations around the vehicle is increasing. In the in-vehicle cameras, there is a case that a lens as an imaging surface becomes dirty due to rain, mud or the like. Therefore, conventionally, a foreign matter removal device for removing foreign matters by blowing cleaning liquid or high-pressure air or the like to the lens of the in-vehicle camera in order to remove foreign matters such as water droplets adhering on the lens has been known.
In such a foreign matter removal device, the performance of removing foreign matters may be deteriorated when the positioning accuracy of the tip end of the nozzle with respect to the lens of the camera is low. Therefore, for example, a structure has been proposed in which a dedicated bracket is provided on a body panel of a vehicle, and a nozzle is positioned with respect to a lens via the dedicated bracket (see Patent Document 1). In Patent Document 1, a part of the camera and the nozzle are arranged in a space provided at the rear of the body panel and located between a garnish and the body panel, and an imaging surface of the camera protrudes outward from an opening portion of the garnish.
Further, in the foreign matter removal device disclosed in the following Patent Document 1, a tank in which cleaning liquid is stored and a unit for injecting the cleaning liquid are mounted inside a body panel of a vehicle. Then, a dedicated nozzle bracket is attached to the body panel of the vehicle, and the cleaning liquid is injected onto the lens exposed toward the outside of the vehicle via the nozzle bracket (see Patent Document 1).